Once again John Husar’s “On the Outdoors” column has provided us with the best news in your paper. In his Jan. 31 column headlined “Elk likely to roam Joliet Arsenal prairie,” he talks in depth about the stunning triumph of many far-sighted people who turned the Joliet Army Arsenal from an exclusive federal site into an inclusive public one.
The plan for the Joliet site includes the creation of a 3,000-acre industrial park, a 910-acre veteran’s cemetery, a 425-acre landfill and more than 19,000 acres for outdoor recreation and ecosystems management. Its development took a collaborative effort of citizens, officials, business representatives, recreation groups and open space and environmental advocates. We would like to duplicate this success at another location– the Savanna Army Depot.
The Savanna Army Depot is located in northwest Illinois along the Mississippi River. Its size and impressive natural areas make it a unique and important site to protect for outdoor recreation and wildlife habitat. A little more than half of the site consists of a sand prairie-savanna, the largest remaining system of its type in Illinois and rare nationally.
Most of the rest of the depot contains low-lying backwater lakes, marshes and islands along the river that offer incredible opportunities for observing wildlife. The entire site is listed as a significant natural area by the Illinois Natural Areas Inventory.
Unfortunately, Savanna’s Local Redevelopment Authority doesn’t seem interested in following Joliet’s example. They have not pursued a proposal from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage 11,500 acres of the site. Economic development, outdoor recreation and natural resource protection can complement each other very well, as the Joliet project has shown. A reuse plan that creates jobs and increases local tax revenues while preserving most of the Savanna Army Depot for outdoor recreation and natural resource management will attract impressive support.
